Face millers of this type are frequently constructed as milling tools, in which cutting plates, for example indexable inserts made from hard metal, ceramic (cermet) or polycrystalline diamond (PCD), are accommodated in the tool carrier. Conventionally, in the case of surface milling tools the cutting plates are inserted in such a manner that a setting angle Kr of approximately 75° results, that is to say the main cutting edges run at an angle Kr of approximately 75° to the planar surface to be machined in a plane containing the miller axis. The miller axis is in this case perpendicular to the tool surface and the auxiliary cutters located at the front of the tool generate the surface to be prepared.
Like other milling tools, face millers of the type described at the beginning are also subject to a dynamic development towards greater cutting speeds with simultaneous increasing of tool life, wherein a very good surface quality of the machined surface should often be ensured even in the case of a very large milling performance. In this case, the clamping technology, using which a high-performance milling cutter of this type is coupled to the machine tool, is assigned further importance. Modern hollow shaft taper (HSK) interfaces make it possible to couple milling cutters with working diameters of well over 100 mm to the machine tool spindle in such a stable manner and with such large concentricity that high-quality machining surfaces can be achieved even at cutting speeds of more than 1000 m/min. The spindle speeds can be more than 10000 rpm in this case.
However, in the case of face millers of the type described at the beginning, the problem exists with ever increasing cutting speeds that the cutting edge which is abruptly dipped into the workpiece leads to a cutting force curve which can entail considerable vibrations of the miller and overloading of the cutting inserts at certain points. The milling performance and the service life of the tool can therefore often not be maintained at a satisfactory level.